Recurring Invoices
Recurring invoices automate repeat billing. You define the client, the line items and a billing frequency once, and PMSuite generates the invoices on that schedule instead of you re-creating the same document every cycle. Each generated invoice is a normal invoice with its own number, dates and payment tracking.
Who can use it: Company Admin. Access is governed by the Finance module permissions in Settings → Roles & Permissions (permission levels are None, Added, Owns, All). If a team member cannot see Recurring Invoices, check their role there first, then have them log out and back in — permission changes do not always apply to an already-active session.
Prerequisites
- A client record. The client you are billing must already exist under Sales → Clients.
- Invoice settings. Your invoice prefix (default
INV#) and Due After (days) are set in Settings → Finance Settings; tax rates are maintained separately in Settings → Tax Settings. See Invoice Settings. - A bank account (optional). If you want bank/payment details printed on each generated invoice, add it first under Bank Accounts.
How to Access
Navigation: Sidebar → Finance → Revenue → Recurring Invoices.
The Finance module groups its sections as Revenue (Dashboard, Invoices, Recurring Invoices, Payments), Spending (Expenses, Recurring Expenses, Credit Notes), Banking (Bank Accounts) and Reports. The related one-off invoice list lives at /account/invoices.
Setting up a recurring invoice
Step 1 — Fill in the header fields
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Client | The client who receives every generated invoice. |
| Project | Optional link to a project, so the invoices roll up under that project's Invoices tab. |
| Currency | Currency used on every generated invoice. Available currencies come from Settings → Currency Settings. |
| Calculate Tax | Controls whether tax is calculated before or after discount. |
| Bank Account | The bank or cash account the payment details on the invoice refer to. |
Step 2 — Add line items
Line items work the same as on a standard invoice: Product, Description, Quantity, Unit Price, Tax, Amount. See Creating an Invoice for detail on line items.
Step 3 — Set the schedule
- Billing Frequency — how often a new invoice is generated. Options include Daily, Weekly and Monthly, among others.
- Total Count — how many invoices the series should generate. Enter a positive number for a fixed-length series (for example, a set number of monthly invoices for a fixed-term contract), or enter
-1for an infinite series with no end date, which keeps generating until you stop it manually.
Step 4 — Decide whether the client can stop the series
The "Client can stop recurring" toggle controls who may cancel. With the toggle on, the client can cancel the recurring series themselves from the client portal. With it off, only an admin can stop it.
Step 5 — Check the preview, then save
Before you save, a preview panel shows the upcoming invoice generation dates for the schedule you configured. Use it to confirm the frequency and the number of occurrences are what you intended, then save.
Generated invoices
Each invoice produced by a recurring series is an ordinary invoice:
- It carries its own invoice number from your
INV#sequence (configurable in Settings → Finance Settings → Prefix Settings). - It has its own payment status — Unpaid, Paid or Partially Paid.
- Its send status (Not Sent / Sent) is tracked separately from payment status. An invoice can be Sent and still Unpaid, or Paid without ever being formally sent if you recorded the payment manually. See Sending Invoices.
- Payments are recorded against each invoice individually — see Payments.
Effect on other features
- Invoices list: generated invoices appear in the main Invoices list alongside manually created ones.
- Projects: if you set a Project on the recurring invoice, the generated invoices appear on that project's Invoices tab.
- Payments: each generated invoice is paid separately, either online through a configured gateway or by recording an offline payment.
- Credit Notes: to correct an already-generated invoice, issue a Credit Note against it. That does not change the recurring series itself.
- Finance reports: revenue from generated invoices flows into the Finance reports like any other invoice.
Limitations
| Limitation | Workaround |
|---|---|
| A client cannot cancel a series unless "Client can stop recurring" was enabled on it. | Edit the recurring invoice and turn the toggle on, or have an admin stop the series on the client's behalf. |
An infinite series (Total Count = -1) has no automatic end and will keep generating. | Set a positive Total Count when the engagement has a known length, or stop the series manually when it ends. |
| Only the gateways your company has configured under Settings → Payment Credentials can be used to pay the generated invoices; some credential tabs shown there (Razorpay, Paystack, Flutterwave, PayFast) cannot process payments. | Use a gateway you have configured and tested, or record the payment manually as an offline payment. |
Troubleshooting
The series stopped generating invoices.
Check the Total Count on the recurring invoice. A positive count stops the series once that many invoices exist; -1 means infinite. If the series was set to -1 and still stopped, open the recurring invoice, confirm the Total Count is still -1 and save it again.
A client says they cancelled the recurring invoice but it is still running — or the reverse. Only clients on a series with "Client can stop recurring" enabled can cancel. Open the recurring invoice and check that toggle; if it is off, cancellation must be done by an admin.
I do not understand what -1 means in Total Count.
-1 means infinite: the recurrence has no end date and keeps generating until stopped manually. Any positive number sets a fixed number of occurrences. The same convention is used for Recurring Expenses.
The schedule is not what I expected. Re-open the recurring invoice and read the preview panel of upcoming generation dates before saving. It reflects the Billing Frequency and Total Count you have currently entered.
A generated invoice has the wrong amount. Each generated invoice is an independent document, so you can correct the individual invoice directly. To stop the error repeating, also update the line items, tax setting or currency on the recurring invoice itself. If the invoice has already been paid, issue a Credit Note instead.